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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25490914">Bro Triptyching</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbokbok/pseuds/kbokbok'>kbokbok</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hella Dave [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Notfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:09:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>791</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25490914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbokbok/pseuds/kbokbok</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I've got decisions to make for Hella Dave World and I'm exploring my options. </p><p>Our central issue: What is a Bro without a Cal? How do you solve a problem like Bro Strider?</p><p>First up: brainwashed (possibly brain-damaged), but means well. Still a fuck-up. aka Nicest Possible semi-canonical Bro<br/>Next: brainwashed, doesn't particularly care, just wants Cal, causes problems because his goals are wack and because he is occasionally sympathetic. The Gollum archetype.<br/>Third: unrepentant manipulative violent asshole who hates everyone especially Dave and makes himself a Problem to be Dealt With</p><p>Just to be clear, this is not up for a vote. Just thoughts. Not even well-edited thoughts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider &amp; Dave Strider, Lil Cal &amp; Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hella Dave [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/603787</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bro Triptyching</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“It can’t be over.” Bro is standing like he's braced for impact, but at least he's unarmed.</p><p> </p><p>“Why?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not dead. I remember dying. I had to die. The game ends a long time after I die. I’m not dead. The game can’t be over.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why did you have to die?”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s how it’s going to go. Dave enters the game, I die, Dave wins the game.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why do you think that’s how it goes?”</p><p> </p><p>“Sources.”</p><p> </p><p>“Lil Cal?”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you know where he is?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. Did Lil Cal tell you about the game?”</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t find Cal.”</p><p> </p><p>“What do you know about the game?”</p><p> </p><p>“All of it. Dave had to be strong. I had to die. He had to play the game. Cal knows everything.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did Cal ever tell you what would happen after the game?”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you know where he is?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. What did he tell you about after the game.”</p><p> </p><p>“Cal’s awesome.”</p><p> </p><p>“What happens after the game?”</p><p> </p><p>“Dave lives. And. His friends.” He pauses, mouth open, so you wait. “They win the game and it’s done. Dave can do whatever he wants.”</p><p> </p><p>“What does Dave want?”</p><p> </p><p>This is easy for him, somehow. “Mix sick beats. See his friends. Pizza rolls. Stop fighting. Find dead things and make them look cool. Apple juice. Play glitchy video games. Waffles. Make his comics. Watch me fix things. Hug people.” That one gets a flicker of regret out of him, but he doesn’t elaborate. “But that doesn’t matter. He has to win the game.”</p><p> </p><p>“Dave already won the game.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not dead.”</p><p> </p><p>“You said Dave gets whatever he wants after the game is won?”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s…how it…works.”</p><p> </p><p>“What if one of the things he wants is for you not to be dead? You did die. Now you’re back. The game is won.”</p><p> </p><p>“No. No. That’s not. No. Dave can’t. No.” He’s blank-faced, even-toned, and still, but his breath is shallow and fast.</p><p> </p><p>“The game is won.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not dead.”</p><p> </p><p>“They won the game.”</p><p> </p><p>“Dave can’t. Where’s Cal?”</p><p> </p><p>“Dave doesn’t want Cal, he’s not here.”</p><p> </p><p>“Cal’s awesome.”</p><p> </p><p>“You said Dave liked to watch you fix things?”</p><p> </p><p>He nodded.</p><p> </p><p>“Why does Dave like to watch you fix things?”</p><p> </p><p>“Cal says fixing things is boring. But some things have to be working. So I got to fix them. Being able to fix things might be useful. So Dave could watch. But fixing things was boring, so he didn’t have to learn. Cal hated fixing. He…used…to get…mad. I used to get mad. That it took so long. So we’d smash it. But then it was a bigger problem. So Cal wasn’t there when I fixed things. Anymore.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did Dave like watching you fix things because Cal wasn’t there?”</p><p> </p><p>“Cal’s awesome.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did Dave like watching you fix things because Cal wasn’t there?”</p><p> </p><p>“May…be. He likes…knowing where I am…and not…strifing. But it will be better for him after I’m dead. He can stop fighting.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’ve been dead. He can stop fighting.”</p><p> </p><p>That seems to make him pause. “He’s…older than he was. I was dying. I’m not. I wasn’t in a coma. Davesprite has his wing back. It’s…been a while. I died.”</p><p> </p><p>“Right. And now the game is over and Dave can stop fighting.”</p><p> </p><p>“He likes knowing where I am and not strifing. He can have what he wants now.” Bro nodded, and you felt the conversation slipping very firmly out of your control. You weren’t drawing him to conclusions anymore, he was haring off on his own. “If people come back from the dead, he can’t know I’ll stay dead. So no.”</p><p> </p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p> </p><p>“I get to give Dave what he wants now.” That belligerence is the clearest emotion you’ve ever gotten out of him.</p><p> </p><p>“How do you know what Dave wants now?” You try to hit the breaks on wherever this train is roaring towards.</p><p> </p><p>“Dave’s my lil bro.” He turns more inward, mumbling. “He hates to talk to me. He likes knowing where I am. He hates surprises. He hates being spied on. Okay. Okay, yeah, that.” He nods to himself and flashsteps away.</p><p> </p><p>“Uh-oh.”*</p><p> </p><p>*uh-oh is right. This Bro goes off to give Dave what he thinks he wants. This involves doing many things that many people find objectionable for many reasons, Dave included.</p><p>(One of these things is attaching a camera to his own person with a tamper-proof kill switch, along with a tracker so that Dave can always check where he is. He knows that Dave hates getting notes from him (without fully conceptualizing why) and instead passes him messages through his friends and family. Does it feel threatening? Hella. Does he get to grow into a better person eventually? Probably.)</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Interrogation as exposition! Who is he talking to? Who knows! No, seriously, I cannot think of a single character that works as the other side of the conversation without major rehashing. Like, maaaybe Alpha Rose? Except I have to exposit for her, too, and this little not!fic is strictly for figuring out Dave's Bro.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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